Arcus has prepared and submitted a planning application for a small scale reserve electrical power plant (natural gas combustion and battery storage) near Falkirk. The Development comprises a generating compound of up to 11 containerised units of gas generators or Lithium Ion battery arrays, and associated infrastructure. The Development is on a brownfield site adjacent to a DNO primary substation thereby minimising transmission losses and providing an optimum location for embedded, de-centralised electricity generation.

There is a clear requirement to balance the peaks and troughs associated with electricity supply and demand to manage the strain on transmission and distribution networks and ensure there are no power blackouts. This is important as coal generating plants are decommissioned and given the time it takes to develop new nuclear generation. In Scotland particularly, there is strong support for renewable energy generation which is inherently intermittent. The Development is designed to help smooth over the troughs in electricity supply, providing a critical service to the grid by being able to respond at short notice to requests from National Grid to generate electricity, such as periods when renewable sources are not generating or fossil fuel plants are unexpectedly offline.

Arcus worked with the developer to review potential development constraints and finalise the layout. Arcus produced all necessary supporting information to accompany the planning application.